If you’re in the national capital and are looking to buy a car soon, be ready to shell out more money. The state transport department has approved a sharp hike in the price of the one-time parking fee that needs to be paid while registering a new vehicle in the Union Territory.
The government has revised the one-time charges and has increased the rates across all the segments. The smaller cars get less affected by the hike while the bigger vehicles bear the maximum brunt. The new charge will be effective from 1st January 2019. Here is how the new cars would be charged for one-time parking charges across the price segments.
Cars up to 4 lakhs would now pay Rs 6,000 instead of Rs. 4,000. Vehicles between Rs. 4 lakh and Rs. 8 lakhs would now pay Rs. 10,000 instead of Rs. 4,000. Between Rs. 8 and 12 lakhs, the charges are 15,000. Between Rs. 12-20 lakh, the charges have been increased to Rs. 30,000. Between 20 lakh and 40 lakh, customers will have to pay Rs. 60,000 while all the vehicles above Rs. 40 lakh price will pay Rs. 75,000. Earlier, cars above Rs. 4 lakh had uniform one-time parking charges set of Rs. 4,000. Vehicles like Toyota Fortuner would see an increase of around Rs. 56,000 in the registration cost.
This would affect new car buyers quite a much. Especially the customers who are buying new cars that cost more than Rs. 8 lakhs. The highest hike of Rs. 71,000 is as much as 18 times the original price. The new charges would not be applicable for the physically disabled persons, who are exempted from paying one-time parking charges. The parking charges are utilised by the three municipal corporations of Delhi for upkeeping the current parking spaces and create new ones.
Following the hike, transport unions have protested the hike in charges. Transport minister Kailash Gahlot has refused to comment on the development and has said that the file was never sent to him. Even the associations of commercial vehicle operators have protested the increase in the hike and have threatened to go on strike if the order is not revoked.
The hike in the one-time parking charges was due for a long time now. Earlier the attempt was made in 2015 but all the three municipalities of Delhi had come up with different rates, which is why the proposal was rejected. The proposal was made earlier this year in September and was passed quickly by the government.
The Delhi government has also introduced parking charges for the people who park their vehicles outside their homes earlier this year. This is a pilot project but is expected to be in different areas soon. Delhi government is also planning the substantially hike the parking prices of popular areas like Connaught Place to reduce the congestion and increase the use of public transport.
